Anthony Baza and Jamie Kashitani each won individual championships for Fremont at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League wrestling tournament.
But even with a couple of titles, the Firebirds couldn't get past Los Gatos, Monta Vista and Los Altos in the team standings at the league meet.
At the Central Coast Section tournament last weekend, though, it was an entirely different story.
Baza and Kashitani didn't win titles, but they did place second and third, respectively, to lead the Firebirds to an impressive team 11th in the rugged tournament.
Fremont finished a mere point and a half out of the top 10 at 78.5. Gilroy and North Monterey County each finished with 79 points to tie for ninth.
Los Gatos, behind fourth-placers Dan Benedetti and Mike Narducci, finished 13th overall with 65 points.
Individual champion Jarrod Rothman sparked Monta Vista to a team 16th (53.5) with Los Altos 18th (51).
It was Los Gatos, Los Altos and Monta Vista who had finished one-two-three at the league meet a week earlier. Fremont was a distant fourth at the tournament, with league dual match champion Cupertino fifth, despite an individual title won by junior Joey Conley.
The best individual showing by an SCVAL wrestler at CCS was turned in by Rothman at 121 pounds.
The Monta Vista junior was impressive as he cut through the field in his weight class. He won all five of his CCS bouts, three by pin and one by a technical fall.
Rothman made short work of his first opponent, pinning Westmont's Adam Antolin at 1:15 of the first round. He came back with a technical fall in the third round against Lim Baker of North Monterey County.
Rothman pinned Joaquin Vasquez with 20 seconds left to wrestle in the second round in his third match of the first day of competition. Rothman was one of four wrestlers to make it to the 121-pound semifinals with an undefeated record.
The Monta Vista star came through with a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Matt Sanchez of Bellarmine in his first match on Saturday, and that earned him a place in the championship round.
Rothman showcased his wrestling skills with an impressive first-round pin in the finals. The Matador dropped Adrian Velasquez of San Benito at 1:39 of the first round.
Rothman will now lead a contingent of 11 SCVAL wrestlers to the state meet March 5-6 at the University of the Pacific's Spanos Center in Stockton.
Rothman qualified for CCS by winning an individual title at the SCVAL a couple of weeks back. Rothman was one of three Matadors to win a championship in the tourney. He was first at 121, with Ken Montanez winning a title at 162 and Dan Puder a first at 217. Paul Montanez was third at 137, and Matt Krieger was third at 173.
Puder won three matches at CCS last weekend, but ended up out of the places.
Puder opened with a tight 3-2 victory over J.B. Ayer of Half Moon Bay, then beat Nick Bevins of Monterey 3-0 before losing a tough 2-1 nod to Steve Hoppe of Oak Grove. Puder fought back with a 2-1 win over Fernando Robles of Terra Nova, but was eliminated from the competition after a 7-3 loss to Jesse Hill of Live Oak.
P. Montanez split in four matches at CCS. He opened with an 11-2 win over Tim Guess of Santa Teresa, then was pinned in the first round by eventual champion Ricky Palomino of Independence. He edged Jarod Usher of Saratoga 4-2, but lost his last match 7-1 to Chris Chames of Watsonville.
Kyle Kingsbury got off to a good start for Monta Vista at 277 pounds, beating Ike Ohiomu of Mt. Pleasant 5-0 before pinning Sergio Perez of King City with 21 seconds left in the third round. But Kingsbury was pinned by Ben Flores of San Benito, then lost 7-2 to Josh Visperas of Gunderson to fall out of the competition.
Steve Togami opened up with a 15-2 win over Josh Zubiate of Alvarez at 147 pounds, but lost his next two bouts 6-1 and 4-3.
Nima Mejat was pinned in his first match at 127 pounds, but he fought back for a 12-7 victory over Jose Tarin of Live Oak before losing 8-2 to Michael Berger of St. Francis.
Arpit Uppal (114), Matt Krieger (173) and Mike Katz (191) each qualified for CCS, but each of the Matadors lost two straight matches.
Conley was a league champion at 154 pounds for Cupertino, and Patrick Cannon (105) and Anthony Nguyen (121) each placed second for the Pioneers. Steven Munoz (142) and Ray Shelley (191) added thirds.
Conley went on to nail a fifth at CCS, thanks to an impressive start on Friday. The junior beat Neil Gregor of Gilroy 18-7, Ted Kelly of North Monterey County 6-3 and John Villapondo of Palma 7-3.
But Conley lost his first match on Saturday to Peter Ullman of Valley Christian 11-5, then lost a tough 3-1 nod to Oscar Muniz of Lick. Conley fought back for a second win over Villapondo, beating the Palma wrestler 5-1 in the battle for fifth place.
Shelley, meanwhile, opened with a 9-0 win over Brandon Basas of Capuchino, but then lost 12-3 to eventual champ Kevin Krall of Leigh. Shelley came back with a 35-second pin win over Adrian Garcia of Alisal, but then he was pinned by Narducci.
Nguyen and Cannon each lost two straight at CCS.
Lynbrook's Robert Lee won a CCS berth by placing second at the league meet. Lee made it to the finals before losing in the league title match at 127 pounds to Cesar Valle of Los Altos.
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